Grapevine Gazette Vol. 1, No. 6
District Joins Social Media Litigation • Grapevine Shares SWAT Team With HEB • Garage Demolished Without Permission • Subdivision Goes Back to Drawing Board
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District Joins Social Media Litigation
If social media companies are ever held liable for teenagers’ addictive behavior, Grapevine-Colleyville ISD may receive some compensation.
During a special meeting on March 10, the GCISD Board of Trustees approved an agreement with three law firms. That agreement will allow the district to join consolidated litigation against Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, Google’s YouTube, ByteDance’s TikTok, and Snapchat.
The agreement approved on March 10 calls for the three law firms — Thompson & Horton, Eiland & Bonnin, and O’Hanlon, Demerath & Castillo — to represent GCISD on a contingency-fee basis. That means “there are no up-front costs to the district,” according to a brief statement posted on the GCISD website.
After a pair of 5-0 votes (with Trustees Dalia Begin and Tammy Nakamura being absent), Superintendent Brad Schnautz said GCISD will join forces with other districts across Texas representing a combined student body of about 2 million kids.
However, this litigation goes beyond Texas’ borders, encompassing suits filed by districts and families in multiple states. A document prepared for the trustees by Chief Operations Officer Paula Barbaroux mentions Multi-District Litigation 3047 and Judicial Council Coordination Proceedings 5255. The former is a federal case being heard in San Francisco, while the latter is a state case assigned to a judge in Los Angeles.
Schnautz said the litigation’s focus is protecting students from the adverse effects of social media.
“I just want to say thank you to the board for their commitment to our students and our staff, and just our work daily, as a lot of these distractions pull us away from our core work in teaching and learning,” he said.
The document prepared by Barbaroux closes with this: “Time is of the essence in the provision of these legal services. Potentially impending legal deadlines require urgent action by counsel.”
A pretrial schedule published by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California last September said fact discovery in the federal case will close April 4.
Grapevine Shares SWAT Team With HEB
Did you know Grapevine shares a SWAT team with three other cities’ police departments? Chief of Police Mike Hamlin shared some facts and figures about the joint effort during last week’s Grapevine City Council meeting.